TATE MODERN
Tate Modern invited Union of Knives to walk around the gallery and find a work of art that would inspire them to write a track.
It was Cy Twombly's Quattro Stagioni which blew them away. It's a series of four vast paintings about the cycle of the seasons. They chose it because they 'liked the feeling that it gives of the earth just being one great big creature and the seasons are merely this creature breathing.' The result is their latest track, Four Seasons.
You can listen to it in the gallery or here online.
Union of Knives are a three-piece band from Glasgow. Their music falls somewhere between Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros and Royksopp.
On stage, Craig Grant and Chris Gordon play dual frontman roles and are supported by Dave McClean. In the studio they all act autonomously and lyrics, beats, melodies and ideas come from everywhere and everyone.
Chris and Dave met in a Glasgow club, where Dave was a soundman and Chris worked behind the bar. The pair eventually set up their own studio where they recorded bands and did remixes for Craig Armstrong and Snow Patrol, amongst several others. When they met Craig, a songwriter from Aberdeen, the Union of Knives was formed. The band have recently performed at T in the Park, Manchester's Futuresonic Festival and in a mini UK-tour, including London's Barfly.
They are the sixth in a series of music artists to write an original track about an artwork displayed at Tate Modern.
This series of four vast paintings was created by Cy Twombly in 1993-4. The series celebrates the cycle of the seasons and each canvas represents a different time of year.
Using the analogy of the seasons to symbolise the natural rhythms of death and rebirth was very common in classical painting and literature. Twombly has even scrawled fragments of poetry from several sources onto the canvases. Covered in drips and smears of paint, it’s resembles a form of ancient graffiti.
In each painting a varied range of colours represent the light and temperature of the different seasons. The bright reds of Primavera (Spring) and the bold yellows of Estate (Summer) contrast with the earthy reds and browns of Autumno (Autumn) and the muted blues and blacks of Inverno (Winter).
(Text by Christopher Grunenberg)
You can view this work in the Tate Collection.
Cy Twombly was born in Lexington, Virginia, US in 1928. Whilst studying Fine Arts he met many artists from the Abstract Expressionist movement. They were to have a big impact on his work, in particular their practice of 'action painting'. This is a style of painting, used by artists like Jackson Pollock, in which paint is spontaneously smeared, dribbled and splashed directly onto the canvas.
One of the most distinctive things about Twombly's paintings is how the artist's actions and gestures are transmitted into the finished artwork. The abstract forms in his paintings are made through various different methods of applying paint, ranging from scraping to smearing to gentle brushwork.
Twombly later moved from his native US and settled in Rome. Here he became absorbed in classical culture and took the subjects of his paintings from ancient literary and mythological sources. He also began to include fragments of classical poetry in his paintings.
Twombly now lives in Lexington, US and Italy.
You can learn more about Cy Twombly in the Tate Collection.
Click here to view the broadband interactive.
You'll need Flash 8 and a basic broadband connection to view.
